Data from the Traffic Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security show that over the past five years, there have been 352 traffic accidents nationwide involving sleeper buses, resulting in 241 deaths and 270 injuries.
The Department for Roads of Vietnam has requested that local Departments of Construction propose measures to provincial and municipal People’s Committees, calling on them to direct relevant authorities to step up patrols, inspections, and enforcement against commercial passenger vehicles, especially contract-based buses found to be operating in violation of business and safety regulations.
In addition, functional units have been urged to tighten enforcement of compliance with regulations on driving hours, speed limits, blood alcohol levels, and drug use among drivers.
Regarding the operation of double-decker sleeper buses, the Department for Roads of Vietnam has called on the Departments of Construction to strengthen management and supervision through journey monitoring devices, onboard cameras, and fixed cameras installed along roadways. Violations involving speeding, route deviations, and excessive continuous driving hours are to be promptly detected and dealt with.
Passenger transport operators using double-decker sleeper buses have been instructed to run services only on routes and road sections that meet traffic safety and infrastructure standards and not to deploy vehicles on routes or segments that pose a high risk to road safety.
They are strictly prohibited from operating double-decker sleeper buses on Class V and Class VI mountainous roads. In addition, only drivers with at least two years of experience operating passenger vehicles with a design capacity of more than 29 seats are permitted to drive double-decker sleeper buses.
The Department for Roads of Vietnam has also called for the firm suspension of operations for vehicles and transport operators that fail to meet technical safety standards or do not comply with regulations on transport operations and road traffic safety.
